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Good evening everyone and hello to those listening by way of the Internet or reading the transcription. Today is April 4, 2017, our regular Monday night class and continuing on with Chan 101A.

Tonight, we’re going to talk about four of the 37 Factors to Enlightenment, which is The Four Right Exertions. The 37 Factors to Enlightenment are in and of themselves, a practice that can be considered very good, and in a general sense, extremely profound as one begins to look into it. Tonight, we’re going to look into these Four Exertions. I think a couple of years ago, we went through it and did all the 37 factors but tonight we’re revisiting it and kind of putting a little bit more meat to it.

These Four Right Exertions, these are mentioned in the Theravada texts which is called the Tripitaka - being the Vinaya, the Rules of Monastics, and also the sutras, and the Abhidharma, the highest teachings in the Theravada school. They show up there but they are also part of the Mahayana practices as well. They are really the way to practice. They are truly the way to meditate. If we don't have these Four Right Exertions in our meditation, we are not doing it correctly. You have to see these exertions, be aware of their presence in the practice, you must practice their presence in the practice and you have to use them and so they come stringed along with the concept of Virya.

Virya is this right effort. So when we have the right effort, then we’re using this particular type of practice. In fact in one of the sutras, it talked about Sariputra and Sariputra was talking about in the Eightfold Path, the Right Effort, and right effort, he is in fact referring to these Four Right Exertions. I will read to you [kind of] the fancy checks of these and then we will go on from there. It says:

There is a case(?) where a monk generates desires, endeavors, activates persistence, upholds and exerts his intent for…

So they’re saying that a monk generates desires, generates endeavors, activates persistence, upholds, and exerts his intentions and all of these is Virya. This is like really wanting to raise a spirit of the practice, a spirit of Chan to practice. And then continuing, he said:

… the sake of the non-arising of evil; unskillful qualities that have not yet arisen for the sake of abandonment of evil; unskillful qualities that have arisen for the sake of arising of skillful qualities that have not yet arisen; and for the maintenance, non-confusion, increased plentitude, development and culmination of skillful qualities that have arisen.

So of these four, there's a non-arising, the abandonment, non-arising of unwholesome thoughts and unskillful qualities, and an abandonment of these skillful qualities, and an arising of skillful qualities, and a maintenance of skillful qualities in the mind. So what we want to do as we’re practicing is when we are on our method, we’re recognizing moment-to-moment what is present in mind - are we somewhere other than on the method? Are we somewhere at the beach instead of on our cushion, or are we on our cushion clearly on the method and we’re staying with that, and we’re giving rise to future thoughts of staying on the method?

When they talk about unskillful qualities, and sometimes they talk about unwholesome thoughts, there's two words that I use that are very fancy Sanskrit words. Anyone know what the Sanskrit words are?

Gilbert: Good, you’re listening! That’s good! This is important because it has nothing to do with wholesome and unwholesome as being something that is good or bad. The wholesomeness is when one maintain a proper thought. If one is working on a method, the proper thought is the method. An unwholesome thought would be “I wonder when they're going to ring the bell?” Or [you know] “I can't stand his leg pain!” But the wholesome thought would be just staying on the method. We always talk about that the method will protect you. In fact it does, but if you give in to all of these desires, then it creates a problem or vexations. We will get into those in a moment in terms of the definition. Hopefully you can begin to see how this operates and how this makes sense when we're meditating. It says:

This elaboration is attributed to the Buddha in response to the following questions: What is the right effort and what is the faculty of energy in the context of the Five Spiritual Faculties and the Four Right Strivings?

That's what he was saying in response was these Four Proper Exertions. It’s the same with Sariputra talking about this and in there was a Sutra called the Aguttara-nikaya, the Snap the Finger Sutra because it's like (Gilbert snapping the finger), if you can hold the proper exertions for the time of a snap of the finger, you’ve got something. You’re in that moment, what they call a Jana, that you're in a state that is clearly the right state to be in, even for a snap of the fingers. So you try your best and you try hard.

Now this last weekend, I was in Toronto (or the weekend before, I lost track), but in any case when I was in Toronto, what happens is that the people are sitting there and they can't hold it. It’s natural that they can’t hold it. They get frustrated because they can't hold it. But all the Buddha was asking and Sariputra was asking is just hold it for a snap of the fingers. You know why? This is important, just hold it for a snap of the fingers of time is important.

Student: Because if you hold it for a snap of a finger, then it’s no problem keeping on holding it.

Gilbert: Or it is a problem but you know you can do it and you know that all you need to do is just sustain it.

So when you get it for a snap of the fingers, there is a snap of transcendental wisdom that comes in at that moment. It’s just a snap’s worth; not a whole lot. You can’t retire on it but it's not bad! It’s not bad, you have experienced something! You've experienced something - the stillness of the mind. You’ve experienced the True Nature of the mind because when everything is locked in, everything is locked in perfectly, you see the mind just as it is. And so you just keep working on it. The Virya keeps you trying to work for it. It’s like somebody that’s on a dexterity game where you try to keep the ball from falling into the holes and stuff. I don’t know if you ever played with any of those, those are probably during my time where you have a maze with holes and two things are controlling the axis. You keep the ball from tumbling by turning the little wheels. It was very difficult but after a while, you could do it and you could move very quickly like that. And you give it to somebody else and they’d go “You do it!”

And you go “There!” First hole!

And they go “No, I can’t do this! This is impossible!”

But they saw somebody do it. You can go all the way to the end and then come back [you know], and that’s just the way it is. But if you make it past the first hole, you go “Wow, that's something! I made it past first hole! I can do this because the second hole is going to be the same thing!” Just like Sentha said - the second hole is going to be there. It might drop in but you know how to do it. You come back and you keep coming back to it; coming back to the present moment, you're coming back to no-thought. What is no-thought? How would you interpret no-thought with Kusala and Akusala?

Student: (barely audible…)

Gilbert: Define Kusala for us.

Student: No-thought would be Kusala.

Gilbert: Kusala means that one is not attaching to the thought. There's no tail to it or that you string another pearl on to it of linear thinking. Akusala comes with a little attachment to it, actually a big attachment, but this attachment is looking for something to clip onto. So when we have an Akusala thought, we’re saying “Yeah, but what about this? Hey, you forgot! Did you leave the stove on?” Most of you wouldn’t be worried about that. You might be worried about whether you left your Amp on or whatever, or did you bring the book you needed for the next day or whatever.

Those are thoughts and they just start stringing together and stringing together and all of a sudden, you’re back somewhere where you’re out of the room and you never knew it. Those are Unwholesome thoughts (Akusala thoughts). You don't know how mind works and more serious, you don’t care. You don’t care and the thing is that [you know] you're coming here and you're working on this so you have an interest in this, so you shouldn’t say “I don’t care! I’m just going to watch thoughts when I sit to meditate” instead of using Virya to say “No, I'm going to watch the mind! The only wholesome thought there is the method or no-thought at all!” And you just recognize and become adept at not thinking. And then you go “That’s impossible! I’ll fall over!” The only reason you’re going to fall over is because you’re asleep. But nobody falls over from not having thoughts, or having no-thought. It’s just simply you’re on the method that is working perfectly - that snap of a finger. Then comes another snap, and another snap, and another snap. It just works in this way. So these Four Exertions are very important and they go deeper, and deeper, and deeper into the practice in terms of seeing things of how things work.

Can anybody tell me something else that’s deep that’s connected with working on the exertions that these demonstrate? Anything? It's like throwing the coin in the air and trying to hit the floor. It’s Paticcasamuppada - causes and conditions never fail. If you work at it, if you work at this practice, you will see exactly how mind works. If you have no-thought, eventually you'll have no-thought, and no-thought, and no-thought, and no-thought. Mind will be settled and the True Nature will be there.

If you have no-thought and then you have a thought, and another connecting thought, and another connecting thought, and another connecting thought every time you sit to meditate, what do you think your practice is going to be? “No-thought, then Hey! [You know] Blah-blah-blah-blah-blah- blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah” is going to be going on because you fell asleep, you gave up, and you don’t care. You don't care!

But if you work on it and you go “I want to do this! I want to get there! I want to be the Pinball Wizard, I want to be whatever it is” but you want to stay there and you're clear about it. It’s causes and conditions never fail; it will come up! That’s why Hanshan said “If you practice this for seven days straight, the method for seven days straight, you will achieve enlightenment. And may my tongue be cut out each day in hell if I'm wrong about it.” That's pretty strong because this guy believes in this pretty strong himself, so he's making a statement saying “If you do this, it will work!” I will tell you the same thing, with the same admonition to myself; that if you hold this method for seven days straight, with no interruption, there's no way that you would not see the true nature of your mind. There’s no way; no way. The mind will come to rest in seven days and all the things will be resolved.

But then when you're sitting there and you’re a young guy and you go “That one girl, she really looks attractive.” You can forget it! You can reset that seven-day clock again. Or [you know] “I don't like this food!” Or “It’s too cold!” Or “It’s too this way or too that way and whatever it is” and then you’ve lost it. But if you go there with the intention that you are going to hold that method and you’re going to work it and work it and work it, it will happen. But you don't have to wait to go to an extended retreat, you can still do it on your daily basis. You just have to start practicing that, start practicing that, holding onto that and when you're in your daily life and you have the thoughts that are stringing along, you just cut them off! Just cut them, and cut them and cut the thoughts off and you work in this way. You try your best in your everyday life to cut off these sequential thoughts, the mind that craves another thought. You cut off the mind that desires continuation. You don't need to keep continuing.

Have you ever had a friend that sings songs incessantly? You go “Hey buddy, is it possible that you don't have to sing all the time? You know, take a break for a while?” Or people that talk incessantly? You don’t have to have a mind like this. When you see the mind in this way, you see your mind and you reflect on what's happening. And when you reflect what's happening, sometimes there is a bit of shame that arises because most the time, all of the flop sum and jet sum that appears in mind is just a bunch of junk. You don’t need to have them in there [you know], whether this is happening, or your opinion of this, which nobody needs the hear including yourself, or whatever all that stuff that is there, all of a sudden you realize “Hey, if I cut all these stuff out, there is a peace in my life.”

I had two battling secretaries, I think I brought that up before, it got worse. But that one secretary who listens to the Dharma, and actually probably the reason why I’m sometimes late (Because I’m giving her Dharma lessons, little by little I’m dropping her breadcrumbs) to get here. But in any case, she understood what I said. So when the other person said something to her she’d just let it go and just let it go, let it go. It didn't bother her anymore so she was liberated. And she can understand this person, she understand from where this was happening. The other person I gave the same lecture to, but fell on deaf ears.

Once the Buddha was teaching, there was a very wise man that was watching him teach. He was a little bit removed from all of it but looking at him. He was listening intently but watching around him. Finally he went up to the Buddha he said [you know] “I listen to you very intently but I also observed that there's some in the Sangha that takes your words to heart and they actually achieve some realization and are working very well with it. And there's others who listen to you and applaud you for what you’re doing but don't seem to make any progress. Why is that? If your teachings are so deep and good, why is it that not everyone who hears it can benefit from it?”

The Buddha said “Well, where are you from my good man?”

And he said “I’m from this little hamlet up in the mountains.”

He said “I have not heard of that town. Where is that?”

So he proceeded to tell him how to get there: you go through the canyon, follow the river upstream through the mountain pass and then there's a meadow there that the people have settled into.

Then the Buddha said “I see. If I wanted to go there, could I just simply will myself to appear in your town?”

And he said “Of course not! How could you do that? You know, even you the Buddha, I don't think you're capable to do that!”

The Buddha said “How would I get there?”

He said “You have to walk the path. You have to follow the instructions of how to get there and then you’ll get there.”

The Buddha said “Precisely, if my words are such that they are beneficial, nevertheless those that hear it have to walk the path. They have to put it into motion” and use Virya to practice, and the memory to remember they’re practitioners and use the proper method. And then it will work.

Each of you are looking for something. It was interesting because I was telling my associate. She had a gold key on a pendant. I said “It's like the gold key on your pendant. You do not look at the key to where that key fits. That’s where you’ll find it. It’s not the key itself.” So you have to keep trying the lock trying to see where it fits. This is our practice. So for all of you when you come, you have to set these things into motion, to sort them out and figure it out. If you don't do that, then you come and you listen to the words (and it’s good for you to come and listen to the words, don't give up), but you have to put it into motion. When you put it into motion, the sincerity of you putting it into motion really brings about some prompt changes: prompt changes in your attitude, changes in the way that you look at life, and little by little there's an erosion of the self by doing it this way.

Some people, it can be a sudden burst. To others, it can be a steady erosion of the self. It matters not which one you get. You can’t go “I want the sudden one!” you know. (Laughs…) Yes, everybody that's does the sudden ones go “Yes, it took me 50 years, or 50 lifetimes, or 500 lifetimes!” So it’s in this way that if in this lifetime, and you put in the time before, and I’m trying to wake you up, it may happen. But if not, it’s still money in the bank, the proper practice. And not even that, even if I’m wrong, you still have the key on how to live your life here so you're not going to mess things up for you or other people around you.

That’s probably the thing that we do the best as humans, is we mess things up. You really think that we’re right. So we’re right so let’s bomb somebody to prove we’re right, regardless whether we kill so many lives. Because we’re right, we want to prove we’re right. We want to prove something or prove whatever it is. And it is not simply bombing with planes but bombing with your words, bombing with your actions, bombing with your mind. We need to look at things clearly.

For instance, using charnel ground for contemplation, in this what they're talking about is that, and I'll read the part about the Akusala here although we’ve discussed it a little bit, and it says:

This is what constitutes unskillful or unwholesome Akusala and skillful or wholesome Kusala qualities is taken up in the Abhidharmapitaka and post conical Palicanon commentaries. In general, the unskilled states are the Three Defilements.

So here they use the Pali word “Kilesa.” We use the term “Klesha,” which is the Sanskrit term for Klesas, and we’re going to go to what Klesas are but you can call them “vexing passions,” vexing things that arise in the mind. They could be something that is good, or something that’s bad, or something that we like, something we don't like, but they’re vexing passions. What are the three big vexing passion categories, the Three Poisons?

Student: Greed hatred and ignorance.

Gilbert: Greed, hatred and ignorance. Those are the Three Poisons.

Those are the main categories of the vexing passions or Klesas. These Klesas, depending on who was is talking about them, can be 3 to 5 because they put “pride” in there as well, and there was another one in terms of it, or they can be 50 or more depending on how far you go in and what you're studying from, whether the Abhidharma or Yogacara School, all of these have a list of vexing passions or all mental states. Everybody has their own way of defining it, whether the Tibetan or Theravada School and the Chan School.

So when we talk about Klesas, in the Abhidharma, they refer to it as greed, hatred, ignorance, conceit, wrong views, doubt, torpor (like a dull mental state – somebody that’s been watching too much TV or video game and they’re just zoned out), restlessness, shamelessness, and restlessness. These are interesting ones because when we look at life and when we do things, sometimes we do things that are very reckless [you know] and we don't care. Reckless is somebody that’s driving a fast car moving in and out of traffic using the other cars as pylons. That's recklessness! Somebody shameful that they do something that is wrong [you know], they might see a poor person asking for money and you can just say “no” or walk by, but you would say like “Get a job!” or whatever you know, or say something to humiliate them. This is shamelessness in terms of things.

Restlessness is never happy of where you're at. You're never happy of how much you have, whether how many hotels you have, how many of this or how many of things that you own, whatever it is. You have this restlessness. You can't sit and relax. You know sometimes people, they talk and they keep shaking their legs or shaking their hands or whatever. They are not at rest and you feel sorry for them. Sometimes you send them some vibratory energy just to calm them down. And sometimes it works and you know they’ll start up again shaking their legs depending on how karmic it is.

Doubt is an important one too because doubt is the opposite of faith. Faith is very strong and when we get that for a snap of the finger, then we have faith that we can do it. But doubt is “Nah, maybe it was just gas! (Laughs…) or whatever. I’m relieved, made me feel good!”

Wrong Views is not seeing things as they are. So you want things for yourself so you put the Buddha statues there and go “Please Kuanyin, please let me get a job! Please get this, or get that, or whatever. It isn’t necessary bad but if you keep asking like this, then it’s the wrong view. There was a story of the black nose Buddha where the person, he always wanted to ask things of the Buddha and they would always go to the temple and would put incense there but they wanted to make sure that the Buddha could smell the incense. So they put the incense very close to the Buddha statue. After a while the Buddha ended up with a black nose. And this is again the wrong view, the way that we look at things and we see things from a distorted view point even when we think what the practice is. But sometimes we really lose it and we start looking for it in the wrong places.

Sometimes they talk about these as mental hindrances and in the Pali Canon, they talk about Kleshas and how they talk about the Upak-kleshas (Upak - affected obstacles to the pursuit of the direct knowledge, Avinyaand wisdom, Panya, which is Prajna). So it's interesting and what they’re saying is they see these as obstacles. It doesn't matter what they are. It doesn't matter what type of vexing passion it is. All you have to know is whether it’s Kusala or Akusala. You don't have to name them “Oh, I spotted that one. It’s torpor!” Or it’s this or it’s that. You just have to know that these things are obstacles. They obscure the mind in a manner in which we are not able to see our True Nature. They are there and we are trying to pursue this direct knowledge and wisdom but we can’t.

In Toronto, one gentleman asked me a question about this non-thinking and he was saying “This was kind of like we did a practice outside but we never brought it in to the Chan Hall, which was called direct contemplation. And I’m going like “Eureka!” you know. “You found it! That is not thinking!” That is not thinking, direct contemplation is what you do. You don't cogitate when you're sitting on a cushion. You don't think. You're contemplating. You have to learn how to contemplate. That's why they use the exercise of direct contemplation. Most people never tell you that’s what you do when you're sitting on a cushion - is you're contemplating. And you go, “How do I contemplate?” “Don't think!” It's the same thing. So you can see that the light went on in his head. It was a pretty big moment for him to make that leap because he was good at direct contemplation. All he has to do now is just put that into his method when he’s sitting to meditate.

Here there was a part which is:

In the Fifth Century C.E., commentary of Vasud Dimaga in his discussion of Dependent Origination - Paticcasamuppada, it present different expository methods for understanding this teachings, Twelve Factors. Twelve Factors is the Laws of Dependent Origination (and I don't want to divert into what is those 12 Factors), but they start with ignorance and they end with aging and death and it’s showing how things are created in it.

But in here, it's interesting because they're looking at it from the viewpoint, these 12 Factors, as a realm of defilement, a realm of karmic, a realm of results. So they’re breaking it down and looking at this and saying “This is what happens, and this happens again, and this happens again, and these things that are current” and they’re tying it in and so they’re giving more volume to Paticcasamuppada, and how it works. And by doing this in this way, where they’re tying it in to defilements or the Kleshas, and the karma that is created and then the results of it, the causes that happen, it’s showing that this is the progression. These are the things that are happening here. And so as we begin to look at that, we become more mindful and more understanding of Paticcasamuppada - causes and conditions never fail. That's really really important as we begin to practice. I don't have the time today to go over all those in this lecture.

We talked about the Three Poisons, or the Three Unwholesome Roots – Greed, Hatred and Ignorance and I mentioned that there was five in the Mahayana literature and the Sanskrit Trivaka. And that is Ignorance, Attachment, and Aversion (which is greed, hatred and ignorance), and then Pride, and the other one is Envy. Envy is a real subtle one that's there but it can really create problems for people. You know, someone may envy another person’s wife why and then chase after that woman. Somebody may envy another person's practice and try to bring down their practice, try to knock it down because of this, combined with the other ones, of hatred and ignorance. All of them are connected and they all have these kinds of functions.

Ultimately, the most important one that comes up is Ignorance because all of the other vexing passions are connected with ignorance. You have different types of poisons but they all are going to be connected to ignorance in some way or another, when you look at that and when you see the things that are there. So it's important that we see that because in the culmination of the Tathagatagarbha Sutras it is pointing directly to that as this Nescience Entrenchment - this beginning entrenchment of ignorance that is there. This is the ignorance that ultimately leads to a life in being, and that life in being which is illusory itself, but that ignorance is dug very deep in to it. That's why it's difficult for us to practice.

It’s like us trying to rid a lawn of dandelions. Anybody know not know what dandelions are? You don’t know what dandelions are? Dandelions are, to a person that loves their lawn is a bane (nuisance) because if you try to cut them off at the surface, they will just appear again right away. You have to dig the root out and if you don't dig the root out, it just goes back. That's the difficulty with us because in our practice, and when we’re there, and we’re following these Four Right Exertions in our meditation, and we’re trying to cut the thoughts in our mind, we’re there and we’re going “Now I don’t have any thought in my mind.” And it’s just grown back again and you go “I can take a rest now. I can go back to my vacation plans or whatever I'm going to eat after I leave here.” You know “and my stomach is gurgling which is more important than my practice.” So “Boom!” your lungs are full of dandelions again.

You know why? Causes and conditions never fail so we have to really exert supreme effort to get to the root of it. That's why if you dig out those dandelions for seven straight days, you're going to see your True Nature. They may go back later on but at least, you’ve seen it. And the thing is that you don't dig out dandelions by trying to take something and dig them out physically in your mind, like mentally tossing them out. The way that you do it is the way that they do it on TV, by pouring Scotts Turf Builder on it with dandelion control and then applying it equally over your whole lawn. What is this Scotts Turf Builder that you use when you’re sitting on the cushion?

Student: The method.

Gilbert: The method. It’s so simple. It's as simple as ridding your lawn of dandelions. I know some of you are too young to have lawns but if you did that and you have a lawn, you just go down to Home Depot and you apply it evenly over the whole lawn. That’s what you do – you apply the method evenly and it takes care of it.

I don’t know if my analogy is updated from Master Sheng Yen. Master Sheng Yen talked about these Kleshas are like leeches on your body. Now me myself, I have ever had a leech on me. Anybody here had any leech on them? You have? You guys are like from way out there. But anyway, I’ve never had leeches but I’ve seen them in a Humphrey Bogart movie where he was pushing the African Queen and he had leeches all over him. And I said “I’m never going to have that many leeches on me!” But he was saying that if you try to take off the leeches individually, it's not a good idea. And not only that but they may leave their head there which would cause other problems. I'm not sure about that, I don't know if that is true about leeches.

Student: That’s true.

Gilbert: True? That’s scary! But he said that if you apply salt to your body, the leeches will fall off naturally. All of them, you don’t have to pick them out individually. They will fall off naturally. And what salt would you apply?

Students: The method.

Gilbert: The method, there it is! It is so simple. That‘s why it’s Chan 101 – allowing Paticcasamuppada just to add the “A” to it. This is our practice. It is very very simple. You just stay on the method. You don't abandon the method. Some people were telling me “I was seeing that and I was seeing this.”

And I go “But where is your method?”

“I don’t know!”

“You abandoned your method!” The method didn’t abandon you because your “self” was still there experiencing all these wonderful things. When the self is not there, the True Nature will be there. But if self is there, it’s going to be crying out as the True nature. So even if you’ve got a glimpse, it will be like from when they opened the auditorium doors and you saw just little glimpse of the movie. It’s not even worth mentioning.

As I was mentioning that in the Mahayana Parinirvana Sutra, there are about 50 Kleshas so they added a whole bunch, but you go through and you can add your own. It’s pretty easy to find the things that bug your mind. And they include attachments, aversions, stupidity (And stupidity, I don't think it’s low IQ; it’s stupidity on some of the things we do), jealousy, and pride, heedlessness, haughtiness, (So if you’re haughty, you know like you're better than other people), ill-will, quarrelsomeness, wrong livelihood, deceit, consorting with immoral friends (Don’t consort with it them, okay? You have to look at them as vexing Kleshas) If they go “You want a puff of this joint?” “No, you're a vexing klesha!” … attachment to pleasure, attachment to sleep. Anyone of you here attached to sleep?

Student: (Inaudible…)

Gilbert: Really? It's hard to be attached to sleep if you have somebody that’s not attached to sleep because they will find a way to wake you up. Okay, attachment to eating, attachment to yawning, (I was watching you guys… who was yawning here?), delighting in excessive talking (which is pretty much going to bring me to the end of this), and uttering lies, as well as… This is an interesting one… as well as thoughts of harm; “I’ll get even with him if it takes me the rest my life.” It might happen.

I'll leave it there. I think you have an idea of this and I feel a little more comfortable in terms of this presentation of the Four Right Exertions. The last time I did it, and even though it was very similar, I think that maybe I kicked it up a notch for myself as well. Okay, we’ll take our break.